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Had a solid couple of months. Several books I really enjoyed, and nothing that made me want to vomit.
The Jezebel Remedy- Martin Fillmore Clark: decent legal thriller, albeit incredibly slow paced. And the ending wasn't quite enough of a payoff to merit the slog through.
Alive- Scott Sigler: Thrilling YA sci-fi. Fast read, keeps you turning pages with a tight grip. I read it in a single afternoon.
In A Dark Dark Wood- Ruth Ware: Fast, gripping 'who done what?' that keeps you turning pages and features a character almost as awful as Amy Dunn
Everybody Rise- Stephanie Clifford: decent pseudo chick-lit about the pitfalls of keeping up with the glitterati. Not quite fizzy enough to be just a fun read, and it really tests the limits of how much rabid social climbing can be tolerated, but it didn't get bogged down in the inevitable crash either.
Make Me- Lee Child: Jack Reacher #20. Enough said.
Dietland- Sarai Walker: almost excellent pseudo satire commentary about the pressure to be thin and the double standards placed on women's appearance- sexuality. Kind of blah ending.
Day Four- Sarah Lotz: this will NOT make you want to take a cruise, but it also won't scare your pants off. Which it is clearly trying to do. And the ending is halfway between meh and total cop-out.
The Luckiest Girl Alive- Jessica Knoll: yet another "the new Gone Girl" that doesn't benefit from the comparison. Good, but not great, and description led me to anticipate some big 11th hour reveal or twist that never materialized. No doubt I would have liked it more without that misleading expectation.
The Hand That Feeds You- S.J. Rich: this book is actually a collaboration between two authors (under pen name), and it reads like they just alternated paragraphs without reading what came before. Lots of random, non essential (or interesting) information, not very much character development. The premise was good, but the execution was weak.
Missoula- Jon Krakauer: excellent examination of the abhorrent handling of rape in this country, as seen through several cases that occurred in Missoula MT in 2012. Absolutely infuriating and physically sickening at certain points how the "justice" system fails to properly navigate this minefield. I will be giving it to my daughters to read when they are old enough.
Nightfall- Jake Halpern/ Peter Kujawinski: decent young adult horror/ fantasy. On an island where the sun stays up for 14 years, and the inhabitants leave with the sun. 3 teenagers are left behind to survive the secrets in the darkness. Good premise, predictable execution.
An Ember In The Ashes- Sabaa Tahir: excellent first book in a new fantasy series. Perhaps not earth shatteringly original, but exciting, well written, and with chads ter you genuinely like and care about. Can't wait for book 2
You: A Novel- Caroline Kepnes: twisty and creepy and probably the most enjoyable book ever written in 2nd person.
Primates of Park Avenue- Wednesday Martin: the bits about the ridiculous lifestyles of the uber rich women on Upper East Side of Nee York is interesting, and the anthropological spin the author outs on it is somewhat amusing, if tiresome after a point. But the author herself is insufferable in the way she insists she is somehow apart from the rest of this rarified "tribe," even while hunting for the perfect multimillion dollar apartment on just the right block and insisting her husband mine every connection and pull every string to get her a 5 figure handbag.
